Nevertheless, "it's stunning," Virginia Kuebler of East Aurora told The Buffalo News while taking in the site Thursday.

A section of the American Falls, one of three waterfalls that make up the natural attraction, has frozen, the newspaper reported. The Niagara River rapids and larger Horseshoe Falls continue to flow unimpeded.

And it's all surrounded by a white blanket of snow and ice, which coats viewing railings and lampposts, trees, shrubs and boulders.

It is a scene that has been absent during the last several winters, which have been relatively mild.

The cold even brought the return of the "ice bridge," an occasional formation of ice that stretches across the Niagara River below the falls, linking the United States and Canada. Until 1912, tourists were allowed to walk on the bridge to look at the falls from below. That ended when the bridge broke apart and three tourists died.